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French-Moroccan politician Lamia El Aaraje, 39, has been elected first deputy mayor of Paris under new mayor Emmanuel Grégoire, AFP reported on Sunday.
Born in Rabat in 1986, El Aaraje moved to France at the age of 18 to pursue her studies and steadily rose through the ranks of the Socialist Party (France), becoming in 2023 the first secretary of its influential Paris federation. Known for her firm stance and opposition to La France Insoumise, she advocates a social-democratic line within the party.
A trained pharmacist who later transitioned into health law, she began her political career in the 2010s. She was elected in 2014 in Paris’s 20th arrondissement, where she oversaw health and social issues. She later became a Paris councillor in 2020 and chaired key committees on public space, infrastructure, and security.
El Aaraje was briefly elected as a member of parliament in 2021 before the result was annulled, and she lost her seat in 2022 to LFI candidate Danielle Simonnet.
She has since held several senior roles at City Hall, including overseeing accessibility, urban planning, and Greater Paris projects. During the 2025 municipal campaign, she played a central role in forging an alliance between socialists, ecologists, and communists from the first round.
